Thoughts in the Middle of the Night

It’s 2:12am and I can’t seem to fall asleep, I guess to say that there is a lot on my mind would be an understatement. Life you see continues to evolve at a geometric rate and I would not have it any other way. In describing the events of the last 72 hours are quite unbelievable to say the least.

This past Saturday I was invited over to my neighbours house for a family Christmas dinner, this lady had been incredibly kind and generous to my family over the past several months with donations of used clothing, extra kids toys, art supplies and more. Her generosity towards me and my family helped open my eyes about helping others and has been offering advice and suggesting ideas whenever an issue would arise.

I had been repaying her kindness in the form of baking, cookies, banana breads and was attempting my first run at gluten free products as well. Not nearly the same as using all purpose flour and there is a learning curve definitely involved but I am always up for a good challenge.

With this being the final week before Christmas there have been a lot of activities at my children’s school including several Christmas lunches. My daughter Megan in grade eight had hers on Tuesday which I made the most delicious Apple Pie for and the other daughter Jennifer in SK had hers yesterday. For that meal I was assigned the task of pies so in the morning I made another delicious apple pie, a pumpkin pie from scratch for the first time and a chocolate pudding pie along with fresh whipped cream.

I wish you could have seen the excitement in my daughters eyes when I walked into her classroom this this giant tray of deliciousness. The best part of my day was watching all the kids and their parents whom had been invited along enjoying all of my hard work.

If that wasn’t enough I also made, with a tremendous amount of help from my friend Tiffany and my son Austin. Together we made five dozen sugar cookies as part of a start up baking company that I would love to see grow and flourish.

Baking for me had always been relaxing and therapeutic and I like to think I’ve gotten really good at it. It wasn’t until I met Tiffany and began to bake together that I realized that I still had a lot to learn. Yes, everything I made always tasted delicious and that had always been my goal. I’ve recently been shown now how to take that to the next level and create pieces of edible artwork.

These are some the cookies we made yesterday and to me they look absolutely delicious. It was such a fun day baking, listening to music, playing and interacting with my children, all of my children through out he course of the day. This to me is truly what the holiday season is all about.

I have living a life of transparency these last several months and have shared at times perhaps too much of my personal life with the world but at the same time I have found it to be so very helpful for my own personal growth to do so. By simply sharing my thoughts and feelings and what has been going on trying to raise my children. This process has given me such an incredible inner strength I never knew I possessed before. I have in fact become an emotional rock for my family. I have been able to calmly deal with every single issue that life has thrown my way, and believe me when I saw life is winding up and sending curveballs at me on a regular basis.

It’s a damn good thing I am pretty good at hitting curveballs out of the park! When I look at myself in the mirror I don’t see a scared man worries about where he is and what is future may hold. I see a strong intelligent capable man of dealing with anything and I mean ANYTHING that wants to come my way. It is with great sadness that the events of the last few days has caused some emotional turmoil in my kids and what was thought of as an act of helping has turned into something very different.

I have been enlightened to the true nature of some people and while the intent was good, the delivery, the execution, and way things went down was a complete and utter failure. I really wish that I could be more specific but I continue to learn about life, and at time how naive I have been in the ways of the world.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

Everyone here is great, events have forced bonds to grow even closer between my children and me. There is a happiness and great feel of Christmas throughout the house, they are excited to see presents under the tree. The final details are being done, and a whole lot of baking has been completed.

The sugar cookies received excellent reviews, the detail and artwork on them is even amazing to me, and I’ve seen my own skill set grow in that batch alone. I am very excited to see what we can come up with the next time an order comes our way. I am going to dedicate a section of my blog site to show off and advertise (if you will) these tasty treats, in fact I’ve a few more to make for Jennifer’s teachers this afternoon at pickup.

Perhaps leaving the Keg a few months ago, and not worrying too much about what the future may bring was a very good thing. I have been sharpening my culinary skills and am very excited to see what the New Year will bring. I have a ton of gifts still to wrap, and several more family movie nights over the next few days. The holiday spirit is definately with me this year, for the first time in a very long time, not having to work the Keg lunch dinner double shift and the 60 hour weeks that come with it has been so refreshing.

Smiles all around here, I hope you are enjoying this festive season as well. Happy Holidays to everyone!